Yunior García Aguilera is a Cuban actor, playwright, and activist, founder of Trébol Teatro and the Facebook group Archipiélago. He was born in Holguín, Cuba in 1982.
His lengthy and solid theatrical career began when he was in the fourth grade, writing and performing alongside classmates. In his hometown of Holguín, he joined the Hermanos Saíz Association (AHS), which allowed him to gain experience and publish his works. He took on the artistic direction of the theater company Alas Buenas, whose play, Sangre, was awarded seven prizes at the National Small Format Festival in Santa Clara.
At the age of 17, he enrolled in the National School of Art (ENA), specializing in acting. In 2003, he founded the Trébol Teatro project alongside young actors who graduated from ENA, with the aim of creating a unique discourse, a creative and innovative space. That same year, he completed his acting studies at the ISA (Higher Institute of Art), graduating with honors.
He has written scripts for television and film. Cerdo (Fiction short film created in 2018) was presented at the 40th edition of the Latin American International Film Festival.
Yunior was one of the key figures of the November 27, 2020 (27N) protests held in front of the Ministry of Culture (MINCULT) by a group of artists, intellectuals, activists, and the general public in response to the events that took place at the San Isidro Movement headquarters the night before. On November 26, the police evicted the young people who had taken refuge at that headquarters in order to demand the government's release of rapper Denis Solís González. Some had also been on hunger strike for several days.
De esta manifestación pacífica se eligió democráticamente a group that met with the Deputy Minister of Culture, Fernando Rojas y otros representantes del gobierno. El objetivo fue dialogar con el fin de conseguir acuerdos que respetaran las libertades creativas, de expresión y de prensa, así como el cese de la represión a los artistas cuya obra dista del mensaje oficialista establecido por el régimen cubano. Yunior integró el grupo junto a Katherine Bisquet, Tania Bruguera, Camila Acosta y otros.
The playwright made headlines again following the events that took place in Cuba on July 11, 2021 (11J), when people from all over the island spontaneously took to the streets in a historic protest against living conditions, poor government management, and lack of freedoms. He was peacefully protesting alongside other young artists outside the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television (ICRT) when they were violently forced into a garbage truck by State Security agents.
Later, he was transferred to the Vivac prison in Arroyo Naranjo and was released days later under precautionary measures that prevented him from leaving his home. From his house, García Aguilera became one of the most visible faces of this social upheaval. He granted interviews to numerous international media outlets in which he defended the Cuban people's right to build a different country while denouncing the violent repression that culminated in several disappearances and the unjust imprisonment of more than 600 protesters.
En julio de 2021, el cantautor cubano Silvio Rodríguez published a statement questioning the police repression against the protesters during the 11J demonstrations. Yunior respondió a Silvio con un text on their social mediaque se viralizó rápidamente y en el que le pedía al músico 15 minutos de diálogo. Days later, this meeting took place at the Ojalá studios of the troubadour.
García Aguilera defines himself as "a civic artist who wants to build a better country where his son can express his thoughts without being beaten in the streets, and where he can think freely without having to emigrate." He does not see himself as a politician but as "a citizen who promotes ideas and wants to transform his reality, advocating for a horizontal leadership based on consensus, where collective intelligence prevails, and where power and decisions do not rest with a single figure."*(1)
On August 9, 2021, Archipiélago was created, a Facebook group that has over 23,000 followers and aims to give a voice to all Cubans who want to build a new Cuba, without excluding the exile or the diaspora, while also outlining concrete objectives for that construction.
Those objectives are:
1. Fight for the liberation of all individuals who were detained on July 11, 2021.
2. Attempt to hold the first peaceful anti-government demonstration authorized with all legal guarantees, without repression or violent incidents.
3. Call for a plebiscite with all the guarantees protected by the 2019 constitution that allows the sovereign will of the people of Cuba to be decided at the polls.
In September 2021, Archipiélago requested authorization from the Government to march against violence in Havana on November 20. In the following days, other provinces on the island submitted the same request to their respective Provincial Government offices, thereby joining the call.
Like other activists, Yunior has been besieged in his own home, preventing him from moving freely. He has been interrogated several times by State Security officials and is a victim of daily harassment by the repressive forces, even being monitored by as many as eight agents at once.
On October 4, 2021, the Center for the Study of the Rule of Law, Cuba Próxima, announced the inclusion of the playwright in its Deliberative Council.
Source:
(1) and (2) taken from Proyecto Archipiélago, interview with Mónica Baró, August 13, 2021, 23yFlagler
